Hi
Does anyone have an e-mail address for Sajhome (the top recommendation in Kochi) - I see on the posts that people have e-mailed them, but I can%26#39;t find an address anywhere.
Thanks
Richard
Many thanks, I%26#39;ll try it today.
RichardBath
Many thanks, I%26#39;ll try it today.
RichardBath
any idea how long will it take ..and what will be the cost like ...we are a family of 5 adults and a kid so would require a larger car
Dear Friend ,
Warm greetings!!
The travel time from Poovar to Munnar will be not less than 7 1/2 hours , if travelling non-stop from Poovar from Munnar
For a group strength of 5 adults and a kid a Toyota Qualis / Innova or Tavera wil be ideal
The cost for a drop from Poovar to Munnar will be charged per km ( up and down ) . The rates are Rs 9 / KM for NonA/C and Rs 11/ KM for A/C .
If taken on package basis the rates are approx Rs 1700 per day for a kilometer barrier of 150 per day for Non A/C vehicle.
best regards
indiantripadvisor@gmail.com
so in terms of kms how much will it be ...if I take a a/c innova I think its should be closer to 7500-8000..
Will it be better if I take a package..how do the rates vary after the day limit of 150kms..
what would a innova package cost me for poovar to munnar - stay in munnar for 2 days (some siteseeing perhaps) - and then munnar to cochin airport drop
Dear Friend ,
In case you take an A/C innova for the drop to Munnar , you should run a total kilometer of Approx 800 ( up and down kilometer in total)
So for an A/C Innova it can be Rs 8800 /-
While you take on package basis , in addition to the rent per day , the additional kilometer after 150 , is calculated on actual basis , ie , Rs. 11 per kilometer for A/C
So for 3 days the calculation can be as below
Rent X 3 days ( Kilomter usage for 3 days = 3 days X 150 = 450 kms )
plus additional kilometer @Rs 11 for A/C
Do you operate an agency which can arrange the innova for me ...
following is my itinerary
Day1: drop from Trivandrum airport to Poovar
Day2: Poovar to kanyakumari and back (day trip)
Day3: Poovar to Trivandrum and back (day trip)
Day4: Drive from Poovar to Munnar
Day5: Munnar siteseeing
Day6: Munnar Siteseeing (may do only one day here)
Day7: Drop to Cochin airport from Munnar
Can you tell me what will it cost me in total to have a package deal on a per day basis for this itinerary?
Can you arrange or suggest anyone who can arrange this for me
Dear Friend ,
Warm greetings from Kerala!!
I can assist you in arranging the trip.
Service required : A/C innova
Number of days : 7 days
Pick up : Trivandrum Airport
Drop: Cochin Airport
As per the iternary given you will run a kilometer not less that 1500 for the entire trip.
So the total cost( for the said kilomter ) can be Rs 15000/- approx ( Rs 1700 per day / 150 kms plus extra kilomters)
including inter hotel transfer ,sight seeing and drop to cochin airport
In short if you hire on package basis ,for seven days , as per the package you can use 1050 kms , but including sight seeing and other things this can go beyond that by another 500 kms approx ( calcutated based on the normal sightseeing distances at each destination)
Hope the above is clear
best regards
indiantripadvisor@gmail.com
my boyfriend ad i. are going to goa for xmas an new year. we have booked a superior room . i was just a bit worried about the standard and comfort of the rooms. can any body let me no if the rooms are ok please.
superior.rooms at sun village.Cant help yet. But I will be staying in a superior room at sun village in 11 more sleeps so can let you know.
superior.rooms at sun village.The superior rooms are nice, you have bamboo chairs and table on the balconey instead of plastic and better facilities in the room itself - tea, coffee makeing etc. are you also on the Gold plan? If so this entitles you to all drinks, fruit juices, lobster/tiger prawns in the restaurants. You will have a great time, but don%26#39;t spend all your holiday in the resort - there is so much to see out there.....
Shirley
Laura Jayne
Can beat you - I%26#39;ll be staying in one in 5 days time LOL can%26#39;t wait.
In answer to the original question emerald36, the rooms are much better than the standard rooms (And to be honest there%26#39;s not a lot wrong with the standard rooms). Don%26#39;t forget though that Goan 4 star isn%26#39;t British 4 star.
If you look on the reviews for Sun Village Goa, you%26#39;ll get an idea of what others think. Take those that have only posted a couple of times with a pinch of salt though. You%26#39;ll normally find they are slating the hotel but that%26#39;s generally because they are actually from a rival hotel - most are even ';Daft'; enough to recommend the rival!
Scott
Wow George Clooney will be there the same time as me lol! My bf better watch out.
You aint fooling anyone ';scott'; with that profil pic lol.
I am kinda guesing you have been before Scott, if so how far is sun village from the beach as keep hearing different things.
Laura Jayne
About a 20 minute stroll, although the hotel do have a minibus running about every hour.
Baga beach can get a bit ';Manic';, so if you%26#39;re looking for something a bit quieter some days get a taxi at the front of the hotel and for about a tenner you can get transported to and from the quiter beaches further north.
Scott
hi there. laurajayne thats very kind of you to let me know about the sup rooms. i am mainly worried about the beds i know its a poor country , and i seem to be petty, its just that i suffer from aurthritus, soory not sure how to spell it . anyway i get so much pain , if the beds are to hard . you have a great time and hope to hear from you soon. thanks again. shirley not sure if on gold plan,we booked with direct hols over phone and she did not seem to know much about it .all i know is that we have booked a sup room. thanks. bazchops, thanks for that have brill time.
Which is better, Kerela Houseboats or Lakes and Lagoons. What is the difference b/w Premium boat and Luxury.Is it better to book when you get there? We%26#39;re going in the first week of February.
We run a travel agent in the UK, an my advice to you is watch the houseboats! Everyone we send complains about the grubby condition of the boats, often they park in some not-so-nice places, and they can be hot and mosquito ridden, non-working air-con, no hot water etc.
Having said this, they are usually fully booked.
the houseboat belonging to the Kayalorum hotel is clean and pretty efficient. You can get in touch via their web site.
We now usually recommend that you take a day cruise only. The food is usually fantastic, the crews are good and you don%26#39;t see anything between 6.30 and 6.30 anyway.
It seems expensive, but at least you won%26#39;t need to complain!
I have just returned from Kerala. Regarding houseboats: If you are travelling outside the Xmas new Year oeriod it is often much better to book the houseboat when you are there. And when I say ';there'; I mean actualkly go to Allepey or Kolam and choose your boat as there is a quite a wide variation in price and quality. We booked a boat from Varkala for 7500 rupees a night and even though we thoroghly enjoyed the trip ,we were a bit disappointed with the standard and cleanliness of the boat, however had we booked from home we could have paid almost double for the same boat. We met a British couple who had travelled to Allepey the night before and just went down to the pier in the morning and picked up a luxurious boat for 6000 rupees a night. There are now over 400 houseboats in Allepey and on any day (outside Xmas and N year) probably only half of them have a contract so it is definitely a buyers market.
Regarding the advice that you should only take a day cruise. I can%26#39;t really see the logic here. A large part of the fun is sleeping on the boat and visiting the villages in the backwaters. When you tie up for the night you usually get offered a canoe trip down the samll side canals so you can see how the people live out there as well.
i just got back after a weekend in Kerala, and was on the backwaters on Friday night. It is warming up now-apparetnly started the past week, and days will be quite warm. The incremental cost of spending the night in a houseboat versus a hotel room is not much and , IMHO, well worth it, if the cruise boat is a good one.
Definitely book after you are here-you will see what you%26#39;re paying for..
On 25 Jan we had a backwaters overnight cruise on a boat from the following company:
http://lakelandsrenjini.com/houseboats.html
We left Alleppey at noon and returned to Kumarakom at 9am the next morning.
It%26#39;s worth doing it this way to get the contrasting scenery, and you really get a chance to unwind.
The vessel was absolutely spotless, it was a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom a/c boat but we only used the fans. There were 4 staff, one of whom was the cook, and we 3 passengers.
The cruise was one of the real highlights of our time in India and was utterly relaxing. The only thing was they didn%26#39;t have any coconuts and we had to pay Rs 50 for 3, in a deal that was done when we stopped for the evening!
The boat was booked by our Delhi travel agent and cost us US$100 per person. You could well get it a bit cheaper dealing direct.
Our captain told us that Lakes and Lagoons are regarded as the best company, but purely because they have the most vessels. Ours, Lakelands is apparently regarded as the 2nd best.
Hope this helps.
My partner and i returned from Kerala on 16th Feb 2008 and prior to booking our houseboat cruise we wrere told that the no 1 was Muthoot River Escapes. Lakelands is 2nd best and this is who our tour operator booked for us.
We did a over night Alleppy to Alleppy cruise. During the day it was very very relaxing, we had the top deck all to our selves and it was very refreshing as you could actually feel the breeze on the top deck (you couldn%26#39;t on the lower deck and needed a fan). Our bedroom was clean (no mosquitoes) with an AC which was on from 9pm to 6 am.The bathroom however was full of mosquitoes and cockroaches.
Night time was horrible and we ever on edge the whole time.We were sitting in the lower deck watching a movie while we waited for our dinner, we couldn%26#39;t switch the lights on as it would attract insects so were sat in the dark. The dark atracted at least 6 lizards which came to eat the many insects that we were surounded by (switching the light off didn%26#39;t help!!!)
When the food was ready they switched the light on and some of the lizards hid but we ere then hit in the face and body by all sorts of insects flying into the boat. We ate very quickly and went to our room as soon as we could. We very glad that there were no insects or lizards in the room and did manage get some sleep.
Our experience in the evening was just horrible and for this reason i would not do an over night cruise again.
Hard to explain how we could have had such opposite experiences, just 3 weeks apart, with the same company.
Your boat sounds far superior with an upper deck and movie-watching!
If we%26#39;d gone through what you have, we would have been put off as well.
Nelluda, I am glad you did not have the same experience. We spoke to a couple of other people and they did not experience anything similar either so I guess we were just unlucky. It’s a shame because it really did turn something that could have been a perfect experience into some thing that we would never want to experience again. .
Our house boat was the one they advertise on their bill boards ‘The first ever complete super luxury hose boat in Kerala’. It had a TV, DVD player and a very good sound system.
Dear Friend ,
Weather it is Kerala Houseboats or lagoon or other operator ;
weather it is mosquitos or lizards ;
what should be even more looked into is
How nature friendly is this , how responsible this is to the lake or the backwaters ??
Yes ! i do agree that there is mosquitos , hence you have lizards on boat and ofcourse cockroaches ... and many more insects
why , mosquitos?this is a water based system , you are sure to see this in any part of the Vembanad lake
You are lucky , if there is slight breeze and the boat is in line to the flow of the wind , you get to avoid a considerable amount of this little creatures of Nature
Premium , luxury , deluxe , standard are the name given by operators , seen mostly in the iternary
and in ground it can be the said category( ocassionally) and in most cases the oopposite , especially in the peak season .. coz even the top operators are over booked and the only choice is to hire others, who have less contact in the travel industry , and hence depend on the major operators , for the cruise bookings ..( here also they are paid very less than what is collected from the guests)
as a result compromise in quality .
but serivice part, i think all staffs on board houseboats are very good in delivering the best and offering a memorable cruise along backwaters ...and most of them are from the local area and this is one way tourism can be said is responsible( socially)
and as pointed out in one of the above pst , if it is not the peakseason ( from mid october to January) , it is always good to come and see for yourself and choose based on what you see , there are over 500 houseboats in the backwaters ..
for those who dont want to take that hassle of coming here and doing that , always better to get quotes from operators , and there are numerous operators , if you go on the internet and get quotes from them and get to see what they offer in rates
best regards
indiantripadvisor@gmail.com
I am staying at the sun village Arpora which is all inclusive. I will not be eating in the hotel for all my meals. Is there any good restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. During the day we may eat out if we are at the beach etc. Thanks
depends what you call walking distance. You can walk down to Baga - 20 minutes and have your choice there. taxis available outside the hotel door for a couple of quid though, so we generally used that option.
Scott
Can anyone tell me current exchange rate this week. please and thankyou
Just over 80 according to Reuters currency exchange
Hi
CALANGUTE at 1400 IST 6th March on the street it was 79.6 and Euro was 61.
thenks for the replies.
Does anyone know of a good opthalmologist in Goa who does Laser Eye Surgeries?
Has anybody had it done?
Thanks in advance!
Chrissie!
Hi Chrissie,
Can%26#39;t recommend anyone personally and not had it done yet - but I was given a flyer recently in Goa which included laser eye surgery. This link might be helpful
www.therightsurgeongoa.com/ophthalmology.html
there is also a helpline you can call for enquiries
+919823472321
As I said, I can%26#39;t personally recommend this place but might be worth a look.
Hi
I/m a right one to give advice on this type of subject having had a very successful cataract op here,But was in the position to get GOOD RELIABLE local recomends on the Surgeon.
Please be very careful as although there are extreamely good Surgeons here this is a tourist area and a great number of people are setting up practice here because of tourism and the high prices chargeable to the European Tourists.
One English lady Had an operation to remove bags under her eyes at a very well publisised tourist hospital just off Calangute main street.A correction was needed on one eye as after the op it had severly dropped on the outside of the eye.Told her that
there would be no extra charge.Don%26#39;t know the results as havent seen her since.
Needless to say she was in a right state with worry.
Oh my God!Dont think i%26#39;d pick up the courage to go thru all that....I%26#39;d rather leave it then.
Besides I really havent heard of too many people going to Goa to have Laser Eye Surgery done.
Thanks all.....
Hi
tabaching how much are you being paid to continually push this Doctor and Practice.? ? ? ?
You give your location as USA,seems more likely that it is the Indian Sub Continent to match your Grammer.
